Evidence of the Bean-Livingston barrier in type-II superconductors

William Magrini (1) , Ivan S. Veshchunov, (2) , Sergei V. Mironov (3) , Jean-Baptiste Trebbia (1) , Philippe Tamarat (1) , Alexandre I. Buzdin (3, 4) , Brahim Lounis (1)

1 lp2n-01,lp2n-12
2 LP2N - Laboratoire Photonique, Numérique et Nanosciences
3 LOMA - Laboratoire Ondes et Matière d'Aquitaine
4 IUF - Institut Universitaire de France

A magneto-optical imaging (MOI) system capable to resolve single vortices is combined with a focused laser beam to reorganize vortex matter in dense vortex clusters. The local heating of the superconductor with the laser produces a temperature profile which induces an attraction of the vortices towards the center of the laser spot. We analyze the collective vortex dynamics under high-power laser irradiation. The formation of vortex clusters is described with a model very similar to the one describing the first vortex entry into a type-II superconductor.

Domains: Superconductivity [cond-mat.supr-con]; Optics [physics.optics]

William Magrini, Ivan S. Veshchunov,, Sergei V. Mironov, Jean-Baptiste Trebbia, Philippe Tamarat, et al.. Evidence of the Bean-Livingston barrier in type-II superconductors. Vortex 2015, May 2015, El Escorial, Spain. ⟨hal-01208123⟩